what happened to my bio filter?

This is a discussion on what happened to my bio filter? within the Beginner Freshwater Aquarium forums, part of the Freshwater Fish and Aquariums category; -->
hello
i have just setup a new tank. i transferred existing and running biological media from my other tanks (without drying it or leaving ...

i have just setup a new tank. i transferred existing and running biological media from my other tanks (without drying it or leaving it more than an hour without food) into an external filter for it. added the fish i had in the previous tank and yup, ammonia! then added two liquid bacterial 'immediate' startups to the filter..nada. brought more lib#ve bio filters media from 2 LFS, added in the filter, still have ammonia.. i dont get it. my hardness and ph havent changed from new to old tank. what is going on??? I also have little zeolite (after the bio media in the filter), which i thought would pick up any ammonia that goes through the bio media. after seeing ammonia, i added more. at the moment im feeding them very scarcely and using liquid ammonia absorbers to keep it low, not zero.

i have just setup a new tank. i transferred existing and running biological media from my other tanks (without drying it or leaving it more than an hour without food) into an external filter for it. added the fish i had in the previous tank and yup, ammonia! then added two liquid bacterial 'immediate' startups to the filter..nada. brought more lib#ve bio filters media from 2 LFS, added in the filter, still have ammonia.. i dont get it. my hardness and ph havent changed from new to old tank. what is going on??? I also have little zeolite (after the bio media in the filter), which i thought would pick up any ammonia that goes through the bio media. after seeing ammonia, i added more. at the moment im feeding them very scarcely and using liquid ammonia absorbers to keep it low, not zero.

immediate help please!!

I may have partially explained this in my post to your question in the other thread, but can we have numbers? What is your ammonia reading, and what is your pH? Getting ammonia continually is not normal, so we can investigate.

Hi Byron and thanks for he help. my amonia reading ranges under 0.6mg/L, but my nitrites seem fine. im wondering now if the high readings is die to the ammonium, not free ammonia, as i have used both sera toxivec and the prime. would i then assume the readings are harmless and that its just amatter of time before the ammonia/ammonium readings disapear? i am using jbl ammonia tester. my ph is around 7.8.

1) An ammonia spike even after seeding a tank is common.
2) Also as you mentioned the api test kits test for total ammonia+ammonium. An ammonia alert is a cheap ammonia only tester and other ammonia test kits are available.
3) Most of those bacterial starter products use land based bacteria that out compete the beneficial aquatic bacteria for a week and then drown and die and then decay and produce ammonia. They are a scam more or less. Tetra Safe Start is the real deal but you need to have total ammonia levels under 2ppm for it to work.
4) If you use an ammonia absorber there is never enough ammonia in the water to establish the proper sized colonies of bacteria so you will never be truly cycled.
5) I would stop using the bacterial products, remove the ammonia absorbers and do 25% water change with prime until cycled.